Lenovo Thinkpads to come with Linux

Lenovo has announced that it will sell its T61 and R61 Thinkpads with Linux preinstalled from February 2008.

The move had already been promised in two earlier press releases, but now the company is coming up with the goods. Lenovo is also releasing the R61 for sale in Germany from January 22, 2008, although no announcement has been made regarding the date for release of the T61.

Both notebooks will be supplied with Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (SLED 10) Service Pack 1, including Firefox, RealPlayer, Macromedia Flash Player and OpenOffice. The support provided by Lenovo for hardware, the operating system and driver installation should prove particularly interesting for business customers. The partnership in place between Lenovo and Novell means that customers can obtain system updates directly from Novell.

At a price of US$ 949, it costs US$ 20 less than the same system supplied with Microsoft Vista Home Premium. The R61 has a similar level of equipment, but is quieter and less power hungry. It is also priced around the US$ 950 mark.

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Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo has announced that it will be cooperating with Novell for various models of its Thinkpad business laptop series with Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 pre-installed.